State sen.: Assault weapons no more lethal than other guns

Pillo was testifying in support of Senate Bill 6396, which would ban the sale of assault weapons, specifically semiautomatic pistols, pump-action rifles or shotguns that met certain definitions. Pillo noted that Seattle Police Officer Timothy Brenton was killed and his partner wounded by a man with a semiautomatic weapon last year.

Pillo said national law enforcement groups supported banning assault weapons as a way to reduce gun violence.

Roach questioned why assault weapons are any more dangerous than other guns, like revolvers.

“What is more or less lethal than those firearms that are defined in this bill as being an assault weapons?” Roach asked the police chief.

Pillo responded: “Because of the multiple rounds that can be fired.”

Roach then asked: “How many rounds does it take to be fired (to be lethal)? …the answer is one.”

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Adam Kline, a Democrat from Seattle and the assault weapon bill’s sponsor, then cut in.

Also testifying in support of the legislation was Debra Sullivan, whose 17-year-old son Aaron was fatally shot in July by a man using a semiautomatic weapon.

“My feeling on this is we have laws that protect our children from tobacco, and from narcotics and and from alcohol,” Sullivan told lawmakers. “I would just love to see us take some responsibility in protecting our young people from assault weapons. They are impulsive, it was an impulse action that resulted in the death of my son.”

Testifying against the proposed law was Brian Judy, the state liaison for the National Rifle Association.

“In this day and age of 24 hour news, I want to give you a bit of breaking news. Seventy million gun owners didn’t break the law today,” said Judy, adding the bill would unfairly infringe on people’s state and federal rights. “This bill is unconstitutional, it’s arbitrary and it will not reduce crime.”

Judy, too, questioned the logic of targeting assault weapons over other firearms. He noted that the four Lakewood Police officers gunned down in a coffee shop in November were killed by a man using conventional firearms.

“Maurice Clemmons, who killed four police officers in Lakewood … he killed four police officers with eight rounds, think about that,” Judy said. “It’s either evil or it’s not, either ban them all or don’t ban any of them.”